This exhibition explored the concept of “Precious things” in the minds of young children.

As a child who grew up in the region I spent hours collecting the feathers of local birds, heads of seeds, fallen blossoms and other little bits of interest I came across. Finding some of these objects hidden in boxes of childhood memories made me realise how unique the regions little details are and has sparked a desire to explore what draws children to hold these objects of beauty or curiosity dear to them, even if it is for a fleeting moment before being lost back to nature again.

Many of these objects lend themselves beautifully to the creation of Cyanotype prints, and it is by this process that the children were given the opportunity to create a piece of art that preserves their experience of collection and arrangement of these precious things.

Process:

Cyanotypes or “sun prints” are the result of a traditional wet photographic process. The process starts by painting non-toxic chemistry onto water colour paper in order to sensitise it to UV light. In a darkened room using only fluorescent light the objects are then placed carefully on top of this paper in order to block sunlight from reacting with the chemistry below. These arrangements are then taken into direct sunlight for a period of time where the sunlight transforms any visible paper blue and leaves the covered paper white. Once the exposure process has finished the paper is rinsed in water to fix the silhouetted shapes of the objects to the paper.

The procurement of objects to create the compositions was a big part of this project.

The children were taken to a “Bush Kindy” event at Bowmans Park reserve in order for them  to collect the resources necessary to create their artworks.

This process encouraged the participants to form a connection to the local environment through discussing with them what they love about the things they find.

A seperate event was held to create the artwork, and  I provided the sensitised paper and demonstrated the process to enrich their understanding of how the paper becomes responsive to the sun. The print making took around an hour per group of five children, including the selection and arrangement of the objects, the exposure period and fixing/ washing process. 

Through this process the children were exposed to concepts of the photographic negative, a traditional photographic process in a way that is easy for young children to understand. These are foundation skills, that can be built on in the future.